Abstract
Human leukocyte antigen ‐G (HLA‐G) is an immunosuppressive protein with multiple functions. The 14bp insertion / deletion in exon 8 of HLA‐G gene have been shown to play an important role in HLA‐G mRNA stability as well as expression level; and can be correlated with its immunosuppressive function. The role of HLA‐G in various cancers has already been demonstrated. Cancerous cells start expressing HLA‐G which in turn provides a shield for various immune responses. In the present study we have tested the possibility of the role of 14bp insertion / deletion polymorphism of HLA‐G in cancer progression and susceptibility. We have genotyped 59 cancer samples (26 benign and 33 malignant) and 79 matched controls for 14bp polymorphism of HLA‐G. Data showed increase of +14bp/−14bp and −14bp/−14bp genotype with both benign and malignant cancer. We observed significantly higher frequency of +14bp/+14bp genotype in control (p=0.01). This is consistent with both benign and malignant tumors as well as cancer types showing possibility of protective effect of +14bp/+14bp genotype in various cancers. However, further studies will be required with large sample size to test this hypothesis. The +14bp/−14bp and −14bp/−14bp genotypes have already been showed to be associated with higher expression of HLA‐G and its mRNA stability and might be providing favorable micro‐environment for cancer progression. There is no published work till date showing the role of HLA‐G 14bp polymorphism in various cancers. These preliminary data showed that HLA‐G 14‐bp genotypes might be playing an important role in pathogenesis of various cancers.
Citation Information: Cancer Prev Res 2010;3(1 Suppl):A44.
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